Romney wins New Hampshire: Can he be stopped?

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney surrounded by his family points towards supporters at the Romney for President New Hampshire primary night victory party at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

After back-to-back wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, the question now for the muddled Republican field of Presidential contenders is: Can Mitt Romney be stopped?

Romney cruised to an easy win in New Hampshire Tuesday, capturing nearly 40 percent of the vote and leaving a field of other pretenders — led by Ron Paul with 23 percent — far behind.

“It’s a convincing win to be sure,” GOP analyst Stan Wilson tells Capitol Hill Blue, “but it’s a win with an asterisk because it’s a win over second-tier candidates.”

Political professionals say that in a perfect political world — a contradiction of terms at best — Romney should be easy to beat. But the bigger remaining question is: Can any Republican this year beat President Barack Obama?

If the Republicans could find one, competent, reasoned leader to field as a candidate to field against the weakest incumbent Democratic president since Jimmy Carter, the answer would be “absolutely.”

But while a Pew Research Center Poll shows Americans split 41-41 percent when it comes to President Barack Obama or a Republican — any Republican — in the general election, the numbers change when you look at specific GOP candidates.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos Poll — conducted Jan. 5-8 among 500 registered voters nationwide — shows Romney leading all other GOP contenders in a head-to-head matchup against Obama but Obama still beats Romney 48-43.

CBS has Romney beating Obama 47-45 but with the margin of error factored in, it’s a statistical tie.

The numbers will, of course, change once a GOP candidate is determined but in a race where the incumbent President typically polls below 50 percent a strong GOP candidate should — in theory at least — be able to knock Obama off easily.

But the GOP doesn’t have a strong candidate. The current crop of contenders is considered by most to be the weakest field of GOP challengers of modern times and perhaps in history.

And that is a problem that could come back to haunt the GOP in November.

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Do you think Romney gets biased coverage because the firm he helped start, Bain Capital, owns Clear Channel so they basically own conservative talk radio?

Don’t believe it?

One of Clear Channel’s subsidies is Premiere Radio Networks. Anyone that has ever listened to conservative radio knows this name. Also, Premiere Radio Networks pays actors to pretend to be listeners to call into their shows. Is that where we can find all the supposed Romney supporters out there, paid actors?

I have some questions that need understanding about this Bain Capital fiasco that is taking over the debate behind Gov. Romney. To clear up my point of view, I have to admit to being a free enterprise Capitalist. I have worked for large Corporations in the past and have made money by investing in them when I felt they were ethical with good products and services. They were on Wall Street and made money for their investors.

I also became a merchant as my grandfather was when he built his own furniture company and then furnished 4 more for his sons who made money as well. Why could I not do the same thing only buying and selling the one product I knew best…Books.

I bought a small building on the central coast of California and had the interior redone to house and display my books and even room to put my 5 foot baby grand piano. Book store owners tend to know others and love to share the best way to buy and sell books. I located some beautiful books on the history of California as well as the Hearst Castle that was just a few miles north on Highway One.

The price of the book found on the cover was the price I had to sell them and I paid 40% of the listing price plus the cost of shipping from the publisher’s warehouse. To be able to hire any help would have meant that my sales would have had to be over $75,000 a year. I never took a salary as the profit was too low.

What I did not do was expand my credit beyond my ability to pay off each month. I worked 8 years, 7 days a week but to be honest, I loved every minute of being in my beautiful store. What if I had investors who demanded their money make some kind of profit? All over America merchants are closing up due to a lack of sales and add to that the property taxes and high insurance rates on the protection of my customers and fire protection on the building and stock itself.

I rented out the building to two separate merchants and both went belly up. There was a group from Los Angeles who were buying up the stores, restaurants all up and down the coast and they would strip the buildings and stock, fire all the employees and end up making millions just as Gov. Romney did. I rented to a woman who had a style that I thought might be able to make a go of my building. Her husband showed me his credit scores and he wanted to buy the building as his wife was doing very well with imports from Paris. I was working for another garment manufacturing company and they were making money from their catalog sales. I had a realtor write up a sales deal where I would get my building back if they missed 2 payments. We all agreed and I got a reasonable down payment.

They missed the 2nd and 3rd payments and I proceeded to take the building back. Turned out they owed the federal government more than they owed me for the building and they went into bankruptcy. The husband was so in debt by his wife’s spending that my investment was gone. The federal government became the legal owner of my building.

I think about those people who lost their jobs and even their businesses under Bain Capital and I wonder why their jobs were lost if they had been making even a small profit. The owners of those companies should have given the workers some kind of warning and wasn’t there something the Cities, Counties or States could do as they lost the income from the products sold.

After the end of the Korean War, many defense corporations closed up but we were all given warnings and severance pay.

I don’t understand the Republicans going after Romney for the closing up of the companies that led to the loss of jobs. It is certainly a tragedy that these manufacturing companies were closed without any explanation for what sounds like a secret action. Are we supposed to force companies to keep going when they lost money every year? Is the government supposed to make payroll when the bankers pull out?

Is there anyone around here who can explain what happened under Bain Capital?

Eve, it is scary! I had to return home to the land of the fruits and nuts. At least they do not judge others. Gov. Romney may have won the first two elections but he may have to work a little harder in South Carolina.

I often wonder if these Conservative candidates ever wander into the other side of the GOP? My groups want a limited government starting with staying the hell out of our private lives. I love the whole “choice” thing where the religious right stayed in their churches guiding their congregations out of sinning.

I’ve been a member of the California Republican Women for Choice for as many years as they have been organized and they are screaming for money as they cannot locate a candidate. The GOP is as bad as the Islamic people who must walk lock step with the religious leaders.

The individual American is now the outcast. I’m a good team member when the effort to restore our choices is the function of the team. I’m just finishing a book called “Sarah’s Key” and the premise showed how Hitler talked the police of Paris into rounding up the Jews at that time. Any effort at respecting an individual was gone. Are we heading for the same kind of action?

I do not believe the Democrats have any desire to round any of us up but if the GOP declares war against Obama, this could be the result. I worry that one of these days a devout Evangelical will talk to God, arm his rifle and take Obama out. So many of these crazy people pray by the thousands to destroy Obama. We can vote them all out of power but will the voters comply?

America is changing and I wonder if the people will tolerate this new power from D.C.?

This is the best the GOP has to offer? It comes down to the voters to choose government issued freedoms or church prohibitions. But what scares me the most are those Americans who vote for Gingrich. I had neighbors in Arizona who would have to choose between Gingrich and Santorum. I left the state. I really need a third party.